Browse > Home
/ Professional Athletes Vouch For CBD Use Over Opioids, article shared by Nicolle Stinson

Professional Athletes Vouch For CBD Use Over Opioids, article shared by Nicolle Stinson

June 19, 2017

Article shared by Nicolle Stinson
So many professional athletes are using, many times wrongfully so, painkillers. A study published by Drug and Alcohol Dependence stated that 52% of 644 retired NFL players admitted to using prescription pain meds while they were still playing the game. 71% of those people admitted that they misused the drugs, and many of them continued to do so into retirement. That means that almost 40% of NFL players are misusing pain meds.

Many of these professional athletes are turning to, or wanting to turn to CBD instead of opioids. One example of this is Bas Rutten – an MMA fighter who was a UFC heavyweight champion and three-time King of Pancrase world champion. In this article, Rutten said:

“As for my own experience with CBD, it saved me a lot of trouble after I realized that I had a painkiller problem that started after my last fight in 2006. About five weeks before the fight, all my injuries came back with a vengeance. It starts with one pill, then it becomes two, four, seven, ten, and slowly but surely, you are upping the count, and before you know it, you’re taking insane amounts of painkillers.”

During Rutten’s career, he fought with pain med addiction, and he started using Oxycontin after his doctor told him that Vicodin would damage his liver. However, after some time, Oxycontin stopped working as well. “What I want to say is that if there would have been CBD at that time, I might have not become addicted to painkillers. I really hope that all fighters and other athletes will use CBD instead of painkillers” Rutten said.

MMA fighters aren’t the only ones using, or trying to use CBD instead of opioids. This article from Forbes discusses a few NFL players that have tried using CBD in place of opioids. This article states that Seantrel Henderson, offensive tackle for the Buffalo Bills, has tried using it as well.

“After being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which involves inflammation of the bowel, Henderson says that he began using CBD to treat the pain that he suffered from the disease. In a series of interviews, he noted that doctors recommended CBD because painkillers would have been harmful to his intestines and recovery. Following doctors’ orders, he started using CBD to treat the disease and was suspended twice by the NFL. Henderson’s suspension for using a doctor proscribed medicine to treat a disease has been a core component of the argument of CBD advocates for modification of the NFL’s drug policy.”

Jake Plummer is the former quarterback of the Denver Broncos who was also mentioned in this article. He claims that he has started using CBD oil for pain relief due to the number of injuries he received during the years he played. He credits CBD in helping him with these injuries, as well as avoiding the addictive painkillers.

Finally, Steve Kerr, the Golden State Warriors head coach recently provided similar thoughts on the use of CBD for chronic pain. He also has encouraged the NBA to look at removing it from its banned substance list.